Nexstar Names William Sally EVP Of Sales

Nexstar Media Group today promoted William “Bill” Sally to executive vice president of sales of Nexstar Broadcasting, a newly created position the company said reflects its “expanding scale and focus on advancing sales leadership across the operations to optimize revenue generation.”

The appointment, which is effective upon the completion of Nexstar’s acquisition of Tribune Media. Sally will report to Tim Busch, president of Nexstar Broadcasting.

In his new role, Sally will oversee the expansion of Nexstar Broadcasting’s sales and marketing initiatives on a regional and national basis across 197 owned or serviced television stations in 115 markets and will be responsible for developing revenue-generating strategies aimed at maximizing the value of the stations’ on-air and digital platforms.

In addition, Sally and his team will collaborate with other Nexstar-owned media properties, including its digital, cable and radio businesses, to create leading, cross-platform marketing opportunities for the company’s diverse range of advertising partners.

The company said he will also work with other corporate personnel “to create opportunities and administer policies and procedures to further elevate the effectiveness and performance of the company’s sales and marketing products and services.”

Sally will be responsible for executing and monitoring action plans aimed at achieving corporate and regional business objectives and financial goals. He will also have direct oversight of traffic operations, vendor relationships and key client partnerships.

His broadcasting career has extended across all facets of the industry including local and national sales, station operations, on-air talent, news programming production and serving in various management positions. He joined Nexstar in 2013 and currently is SVP and regional manager of Nexstar Broadcasting. During his tenure, Sally has been an integral member of the senior management team and a valuable resource to Nexstar in driving consistent market and revenue share growth across the television and digital operations, while building upon the company’s record of local programming, community involvement, client service and viewer engagement.

Prior to joining Nexstar, he was the VP-GM of WXXA Albany, N.Y. Before that, he was the VP-GM of  WFFF and WVNY in Burlington, Vt. Earlier in his career he held sales management roles at KEYT Santa Barbara, Calif., and served in local sales and news positions at WKTV Utica, N.Y.

Tim Busch commented on the appointment: “The creation of an executive sales position at Nexstar Broadcasting was necessary to support our industry-wide reputation of delivering exceptional service to our communities and advertisers, while ensuring that we have the best resources in place to support the company’s revenue initiatives across our expanded scale immediately upon closing the pending Tribune transaction.

“Bill has achieved a high degree of professional success throughout his broadcasting career and has been instrumental in advancing Nexstar’s sales leadership in his most recent role with the company, where he was responsible for overseeing a considerable number of markets. As a result, he has developed an intimate understanding of Nexstar and our critical functions focused on exclusive local content development for our viewers and digital users, as well as effective multi-platform marketing opportunities for our clients.

“A highly-regarded leader in the industry and our company, Bill has been vitally important in helping our stations achieve outstanding results by mentoring sales managers and account executives in the areas of sales strategy, new business development and customer service. His entrepreneurial approach to cross-platform selling and his ability to leverage the value of our leading local marketing solutions to deliver effective results for our advertisers has enabled us to build lasting client relationships, while creating new revenue opportunities for the Company.

“Bill is an exceptional addition to the Nexstar executive management team and we are confident in his ability to serve in this important new role as the company pursues its goals for near and long-term revenue growth. We look forward to his contributions to further elevate the effectiveness and performance of our growing portfolio of broadcast, digital and mobile marketing products, while delivering the gold standard in customer service for our business partners.”

Commenting on his new position, Sally said: “I enthusiastically take on this new role at Nexstar and will utilize the four decades of broadcast management, marketing and sales experience garnered over my career to generate results and further strengthen Nexstar’s position as a leading provider of superior service to our business partners and the local communities where we operate. I look forward to working with Tim, other corporate personnel and the exceptional station leadership teams and sales professionals in all of our markets to develop revenue-generating strategies aimed at maximizing the value of our diversified media platform, in the best interest of our advertisers.

“Nexstar’s leading local broadcast, digital and mobile products enable national advertisers as well as small and mid-sized businesses to optimize the reach and effectiveness of their marketing campaigns across every available media channel. The acquisition of Tribune Media will provide Nexstar with new scalable marketing solutions and services for our clients. I welcome an open dialogue with each and every one of our advertising partners on how we can best work together to optimize the overall results of their media investment through greater and more productive local marketing.”

In his new role, Sally will continue to be based out of Nexstar’s corporate offices in Irving, Texas.